Seventeen years ago, Ryo Ishikawa made his PGA Tour debut. He was a 17-year-old global golf phenom who had already won on the Japan Tour and appeared to be headed to the top of the golf world. He first won on the Japan Tour at age 15, finished T20 at the Masters at 19 and was a top-50 player in the world at age 20.
Every shot Ryo Ishikawa hit and every second of his lengthy post-round press conferences were broadcast. Nicknamed “The Bashful Prince,” Ishikawa was expected to become a golf superstar. But as is often the case, golf had other plans. Ishikawa was a PGA Tour staple from 2012 to 2017. He had two runner-up finishes, nine top 10s and made more cuts than he missed. But he never found the winner’s circle, and a back injury led to a dip in play that caused him to lose his PGA Tour card in 2017. Ishikawa returned to the Japan Tour and rebuilt his body and his game. He now has 20 career wins on the Japan Tour and is playing as a full-time Korn Ferry Tour member this year as he looks to return to the PGA Tour for the first time in a decade.
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Ishikawa is no longer golf’s budding young star. But this week at the Evans Scholars Invitational, he played with one of golf’s current phenoms. And in 19-year-old Blades Brown, Ryo Ishikawa sees something different than what he was when he was billed as golf’s next big thing.
“He’s way better than when I was at 19, 18,” Ishikawa said on Saturday of Brown. “Honestly, I played good on the Japan Tour at that age but I couldn’t figure out how to play here in the States, in the majors and on the PGA Tour. I believe he is the best player on the Korn Ferry Tour right now.
“He’s a great player. And not only a player but a great guy. I’m truly impressed watching his play.”
Like Ishikawa, Brown took the unconventional path to pro golf; such is the story of phenoms.
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At age 17, Brown decided to forgo college and turn pro. He made his first-ever PGA Tour cut at last year’s Mexico Open but only played the weekend at three of eight PGA Tour events. He secured full-time Korn Ferry Tour status and has been content to “run his own race,” grinding his way to the top. Earlier this year, Brown played in the final group at this year’s American Express alongside Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim. Brown lost that day as Scheffler roared to victory, but he left Palm Springs with something important as he continued to climb the rungs of the pro golf ladder.
“I could probably write a book about what I’ve learned these past couple of days,” Brown said, laughing, that day in Southern California. “Just knowing that I can compete out here. It was so cool watching Scottie win in person and getting to play with him.
“I was having a lot of fun. You’re telling me I get to play in a PGA Tour event and to play with Scottie Scheffler and see him win it, that was insane.”
A few months later, days after he turned 19, Brown carded four rounds in the 60s at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, finishing in a tie for 14th and earning Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour. He opted to accept the Special Temporary Membership while also continuing to pursue his PGA Tour card via the Korn Ferry Tour. Blades Brown chose the unconventional route to start, and he continues to blaze his own path. He’s currently ninth on the Korn Ferry Tour points list. The top 20 at the end of the year receive their PGA Tour card.
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After firing a 10-under 62 on Saturday at the Evans Scholars Invitational, Brown will enter Sunday with another chance to earn his first KFT win and stack more points toward his PGA Tour card.
“Good golf takes care of everything,” Brown said at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. “The Korn Ferry Tour is awesome. For me, what it’s done for me is it’s provided me a pathway to the PGA Tour. The cool thing that I think it’s done is it’s taught me to go low. I can’t thank the Korn Ferry Tour enough for teaching me those valuable lessons, because everybody out on the PGA Tour, they can go low. Look at Wyndham [Clark], look at Scottie [Scheffler], look at Si Woo [Kim]. Twenty-eight-under, 27-under is not a joke. Without the Korn Ferry Tour, I would not have had that strength.
“I’m excited for the next couple of weeks and see what’s going to happen.”
Blades Brown is lightning. There’s power and electricity when he is rolling. At 19, with the world in front of him, he commands attention when he strikes. Ishikawa used to have that effect. He used to have everyone dreaming of what was possible; wondering what this would look like in five or 10 years. Nowadays, Ryo Ishikawa is no longer youthful electricity. That has been replaced by the steadiness of age; the maturity and resolve that comes with taking the road not planned, the one filled with adversity.
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In 2012, after playing five consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour at age 21 — two years older than Brown is now — Ishikawa noted the hurdles he faced to get to where everyone thought he’d eventually wind up.
“It was like solving a mystery every time on how to conquer the course and look for winning opportunities,’ Ishikawa wrote in a column for The Asahi Shimbun. ‘Every time I played, I realized what skills I needed to polish.”
Fourteen years later, Ryo Ishikawa, no longer golf’s great phenom, but perhaps its next great story, is still trying to solve that mystery — to get to the place he always seemed destined for all those years ago.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Ishikawa said last month at The Occunet Classic. “My goal is going back to the PGA Tour. It’s a goal. But the biggest goal. It’s a tough goal for everyone. I’m just trying to get better and better each day.”
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So is Blades Brown. Perhaps, sometime soon, golf’s past and current teen phenoms will both reach their desired destination on roads only meant for them to walk.
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